We managed to make it to the wedding hall 10 minutes before it started. Megan and I got to go into the bride's dressing room and meet Bethany. She looked so beautiful. The gown was gorgeous!! We stepped back outside and found adequate seating. The ceremony finally got underway and it was lovely. The environment was astonishing! There were lights everywhere, beautiful flower arrangements, and great music....lots of great love songs!!

Kevin, Lee, and I were sitting at a table talking, after the ceremony, when the dj burst out with some T.I. The looks on our face were probably priceless, LOL! In addition to T.I., the dj played various music from T-Pain to Taylor Swift. It was awesome!! Bethany finally was able to break away for a few minutes and came over and sat and talked to us a bit. She was so excited to meet us all. We finally got introduced to her new husband, Clint. He is a very handsome guy and also a Corporal in the U.S. Marines. Wow! He is set to depart to Japan in January, thus the sudden nuptuals. She wanted to be with him, since he had been gone away from her already for a year. Can't say I don't blame her. So now legally she can join him where-ever he gets stationed. She told us that they would be in Japan til at least June and then come back to the States, probably to South Carolina. We all hated that we wouldn't see her for a while but she promised that we would keep in touch through phone calls and email. Shortly thereafter, the limo arrived and the bride and groom were ready to go. Everyone lit sparklers and the lucky couple ran through them to the car. They all went to the Fox and Hound English Pub for an after-wedding celebration. Kevin, the kids, and I made the 2 hour trip home.

I think the whole evening went pretty well. She seems like a very nice and fun person to be around and I really can't wait until we see her again. I got tons of great pics of her with the guys and kids and will have to post those soon too.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

We took a good stroll down Beale Street yesterday......a kid-less stroll. It was cool. I really enjoyed it. We didn't eat at Rum Boogie Cafe. We ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. I liked the megatron display that was up in one corner. Videos from every era played back to back on there. My favorite part was when the video "Home" by Daughtry began to play. I ordered Twisted Mac, Chicken, and Cheese. It was grilled chicken breast on top of cheesy, curly rigatoni. The cheese sauce tasted as if it had mild rotel included in it, and it came with a side of garlic toast. OMG, it was soooooo yummy. Kevin got a 10 oz burger and seasoned fries, Lee had Tupelo Chicken Tenders, and T.K. also had some sort of burger. It was a tad pricey but I was stuffed so I felt it was worth it. We left there and walked around the corner toward the Fed Ex Forum. I noticed a Starbuck's on the corner across the street so of course I had to have a Java Chip Frappuccino and a HUGE rainbow chip cookie. Kevin got his usual: a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino. We had taken so many photos that the batteries in my camera died. We searched around and finally found some and took a few more snapshots of the scenery. We decided to take a ride on the trolley. I felt as though I was in San Francisco as we rode along the rails. We took the riverfront trolley, which took us around by the Mississippi Riverside and the Memphis Pyramid.

I snapped lots and lots of photos. I think I may just upload them to photobucket and provide a link to them. I am not very good on html and video/slideshows. I think I need a dummy manual for those, LOL!!

Ok, we are leaving for the hall in which the wedding will take place. We have yet to meet Kevin's cousin. She has been too busy with her soon-to-be hubby (he came back in from Iraq on the 15th) and not acting like herself, from what we have heard. Oh well, today is make it or break it day, so let's see how she treats family today. Maybe it won't be too bad....I would hate to hurt her feelings.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Well, after a great morning shower, I sit here in an office chair, with my feet propped up on a bed and my laptop in my lap, inside room 110 of the Doubletree Hotel in East Memphis. Kevin's cousin, Bethany, works here and the room we are in was a complimentary room. It has 2 double beds. Last night, Kevin, his brother Lee, their cousin, Terrel (or T.K. as we call him), Megan, Christopher, and I all camped out in the room. The kiddos and I were in one bed, T.K. and Lee shared the other bed and Kevin slept sitting up in a chair with ottoman....that's nothing new for him since he sleeps sitting up on the couch at home. LOL! Bethany is the cousin that I have been talking about. They haven't seen her since she was around 1 or 2 years old and now we are gonna meet her and attend her wedding tomorrow afternoon. The guys and I wanted to do some sightseeing and things, so Kevin's aunt Tressa is on her way here to pick up Megan and Christopher so we don't have to lug them around with us. I think we are gonna go to Beale Street since I have never been before and eat at a place called Rum Boogie Cafe. Lee says we will go inside the Hard Rock Cafe too so I can see in there.

Chris and Megan opened presents from Tressa last night. Megan got a Hannah Montana Dance set. It contains 2 Hannah Montana wigs, 2 headsets, 2 dance mats, and a dvd. I told her she could play by herself at home and with Maddie when she comes over again. Chris got a remote control car hauler with 2 cars. The cars EVEN have their OWN remotes. It is so neat!! Of course we didn't have batteries, so he will have to wait til we find some.

The ride here was quicker than expected. We came in (Philip's girlfriend) Katy's van. It gets great gas mileage. Kevin and I both agreed that we would love to have one of those vans. Just got back to the post...had to google Bank of America for T.K.

I know I am ready to go eat...my tummy is growling lol! I will post more later and pics to if I can figure out how to put them on here!! :)

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Christmas party with my family went well, seeing as how all the adults waited until my hubby, Kevin, was home from work to exchange and open our Secret Santa gifts. That was the low of the day....him having to miss the majority of the party and the kids opening their gifts from everyone. The food was awesome! Everyone did a great job preparing their selected food items.

I know I felt really tired throughout the whole party. I hadn't been getting much sleep lately due to worry over the holidays, the party, and the thought of losing our house. Our relatives, from which we bought the house, have decided to enlighten us with servement of a foreclosure complaint the week before Christmas. Tomorrow morning, I have the liberty of seeing a lawyer to find out how we can let them have the house back and retain what good we have on our credit. It really sucks that they would do us this way, especially considering we have 2 small children that this will effect in the long run. I swear, I totally believe in what goes around, comes around.....and I do not wish anything bad on anyone, but I was told that they will probably get a karma bite in the butt three-times-fold because of them doing this. So towards the end of January/first of February, we will be in the process of moving back into a rental house. I am not proud of it but with how things have been since we moved here, I think it is best for the time being.

Back to the topic at hand....I felt like crap most of the day Sunday. I went to bed rather late Friday night since I had to run into Amory to Wal-mart for the remainder of Christmas gifts and goody ingredients I needed for the party Saturday. I ran into my next to youngest sister, Heather, her hubby Jason, and their son JJ. We stood in an aisle and talked for a while then I decided I needed to get on home as it was getting late and my sherbet was slowly melting. I got home around 8 to 9pm and decided I was too pooped to do any of my goodies that night. I went to bed around 12 and got up with Kevin at 5am. I fixed him some lunch and he left for work. I started baking snowball cookies (which IMHO, were not all that great but it was my first time making them) and shaping and dipping the bon bons. I definitely have to share that recipe with you all! YUM!! I also cleaned the remainder of the house, swept and mopped the floor, vacuumed the floor, wrapped gifts and washed up the dishes I messed up. Boy was I tired! If I hadn't thought it rude, I would have pulled up a pillow and napped in the floor during the party! LOL :)

We plan on spending Christmas Eve night and Christmas Morning here at home. We have been invited to several places to eat....Kevin's stepdad (more like real dad) has told us we were invited to come eat with them at his dad and stepmom's house on Christmas Eve. Kevin's mom wants us to come eat with her and his uncle Frank and his girlfriend on Christmas Day. Then we have to drive to Memphis either Friday night or early Saturday morning to meet up with his aunt from Texas and meet his cousin that he has not seen since she was 1, hang out with them some and then attend her wedding on Sunday afternoon. It was so corny when we learned she lives in Memphis and we had been up there several times to the drag races. Gosh, we may have seen her lots of times and not have known it.

Monday will be Kevin's 30th birthday. He unfortunately has to work! LOL! But I plan on having a surprise for him that evening. ;) Well I need to go. We need to go find something to eat for supper. I am really not all that hungry....just have a slight tummy ache.

Friday, December 19, 2008

It is Friday! Typically, I would be thrilled. On the other hand.....blah! I will just be glad when it's next Friday! LOL

Right now, I have ALOT to do! Since our family Christmas party is at my house this year(not sure how much longer it will be my house....long story!) I have to clean and have it ready for tomorrow. I also have to mix up the ingredients for my famous peanut butter bon bons, let it chill, then roll the mixture into balls and dip them in melted confectioner's chocolate. They are so damn good, but it requires lots of work. Sometimes I feel underappreciated for making those things. I am also slated to bake snowball cookies...not too strenuous, and I am also making the punch. Punch bowl + couple 2 liters of sprite + 2 containers of lime sherbet = punch! Voila! Hopefully with my busy schedule today, I can accomplish all this, get last minute gifts, get them wrapped, and sit down or go to bed and get enough rest for tomorrow.

I am getting ready to grab a quick shower before my 3 yr old son awakes. Normally, I would not be in such a hurry for a shower, but my daughter gets out of school around 11:30 this morning and I need to be dressed and ready to be at the bus stop to retreive her, head to Wal-Mart to pick up all my last minute items, and get back home. I also have Christmas cards to mail out. I think, to save a few bucks, since some of the mailboxes are on my way to certain places, I will just drop them in the mailbox itself. What's the harm? They will get a warm Christmas message from us and I will save on stamps.....since I have a ton to mail!

Monday, December 15, 2008

In all honesty, I will be glad when Christmas day is here and past. This time of year brings out the worst in people. They tend to get more greedy and more rude than ever. Here are a few examples that I and my family have experienced.About a week or so ago, I ran out to our local Dollar General Store for some needed items. First off, I have not been in any of these stores that have adequate walking space. Mainly one person at a time can fit down the aisles and mostly everything is stuffed together. While I was looking for a few small strands of Christmas lights for our tree, these folks were walking hurriedly through the racks. Now, I am caucasian...these folks were not. Not only did they allow their son, who looked to be around 8ish, to run around inside the store and bother other shoppers, they proceeded to short-cut in front of people to get down aisles. They better be glad it was not AF time or they may have gotten some very loud and publicly rude comments...FROM ME!!On to experience number 2! One of our nieces (my brother's daughter) spent the night with my kids Saturday night. Yesterday, we took her home, sat a few minutes, then left to do some more shopping and grab a bite to eat. I had to run into Toys R Us for some gifts so hubby and kids waited in the car. When I came out, this is the conversation that ensued:Hubby: "Is that shopping cart still pushed up behind the car?"Me: "Shopping cart? I didn't see any shopping cart!"Daughter: *while rolling eyes* "Well, this black lady pushed her cart behind our car and just left it there! But I just saw this dude take it in the store"Me: "Well, she better be glad I was inside shopping!!"Hello? But why would you put your shopping cart behind someone's car?? What if that person was getting ready to leave, didn't see you put it there or couldn't see it at all, and backed over it, possibly damaging it and their vehicle?!?!?! WTF is wrong with people???Then after we decided to go eat at Burger King, the girl taking our order....INSIDE THE STORE I may add, screwed it up and didn't do it right....but we got a free whopper jr so I won't complain much....but just how can you screw up an order when someone tells you what they want...IN YOUR FACE!!! Ugh! Gosh, is it that hard? I know some guy that had went through the drive-thru over an hr earlier, was back in there for the second time. He had ordered a sandwich with no onion, lettuce, or tomato and they messed it up so he brought it back, then it was apparently messed up again the second time. I mean, I know it is busy with everyone out shopping but come on....you can do better than that.After all that mayhem, we decided to forgo shopping anymore and came home. I was so tired and more or less overwhelmed at the holidays that when I got home and began reading some email, my emotions got the best of me and I shut myself in the bathroom for a good cry. I kinda felt better afterwards, got Kevin up off the couch, and went to bed. Oh I am so glad Christmas is next week!!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

I cannot believe we have 10 more days and it will be Christmas Eve! Time is flying by so quickly. Seems as if I was just getting ready to attend my first class as a college student yesterday and in less than a month I will be starting anew with my second semester.We have our tree up. It doesn't have any ornaments on it yet, only garland. Why you ask? Well, for some odd reason, a few of the lights decided to burn out and not come back on. We worked and swapped lights to no avail. I am so disgusted with the thing right now that I had already told Kevin that we were chunking it out after Christmas and buying new. I think I may remove all the light bulbs off it and use those as spares for the next one.I know this has been a very bad year with lots of ups and downs. I am hoping the new year brings us more on the up side. Recently, some things have come abound that required us to visit a lawyer. I am not at all happy about it. I would rather not have, but the circumstances left us no choice. The decision was a hard one but one we felt was necessary. I really don't want to travel down that road but if it is our last option, we just might have to do it. But on to the reason for my blog title.A few days ago, I emailed my psychology instructor. I had taken my final in that class the week before Thanksgiving and had still not heard anything on the final outcome of my grade. I did know that going into that final I had a 91.7 grade average and since NOONE ever aces her exams(not sure why), but she was going to possible curve the grades after all the students had taken their exams. I anxiously checked my college email everday, looking for that instant reply to my question. I was beginning to lose all hope in getting a response soon. As I awoke this morning, the thought of checking it today crossed my mind. In a way, I figured since I had not gotten any reply yesterday there was probably no way for me to have one today on Sunday, but I figured what the heck! I logged into my account and clicked on the links to get me to my email inbox. OMG! There it was!! An email from my instructor! My hands started shaking, lol, but I managed to open it. Here is what it said: "You got an A. Merry Christmas!" :o You would not believe how shocked I was! With the A in this class, that means I have 5 A's for this semester!! *YAY* I am so thrilled! Even through all the bad crap, I have a reason to smile!

Monday, December 8, 2008

We got our tree out of the closet finally! We had been meaning to put it up since Thanksgiving, but seems things happen and we end up not getting around to it. I had some errands to run yesterday so Kevin stayed home with the kids and set the tree up out of the box. I came home and straightened all the branches and gaps. Plugged it up and there were a few lights out causing a small portion in the direct center to be out. We located a blown bulb and removed it. To our dismay, we realized we had no replacements. I have a trip to the dollar store planned as soon as Megan steps off the bus.

We have a little under 2 weeks until the family Christmas party. I am totally not ready for this. The adults are doing Secret Santa and we have yet to get our gifts purchased and wrapped. We have had our 'names' since Halloween, but like I said earlier, things seem to happen and we can't get to it. I still have 5 presents to buy for nieces and a nephew and one or two more that go to my kids. I don't think Kevin and I are doing gifts for each other this year. Really, at this moment, I couldn't care less. As long as I have him with me, it's Christmas year round. I am so totally out on material things. They don't seem to matter to me anymore. Guess that is all part of growing up. I feel as though I have come a long way on that.I wish we could have started shopping in early June/July, but in that particular period of our life, we were struggling with Kevin's sudden job loss, a new (but low paying) job for Kevin, and my determination to enroll in college. Yeah, we had to pinch harder than we have ever had. Thank goodness the economic stimulus was put into effect or we wouldn't still be in this house. I told Kevin I was so sick of using all our money to pay bills. I even had a refund of $745 from my pell grant that had to go to house payment because we were behind from that sudden job loss. Imagine, sitting in IHOP, eating with your family to celebrate Father's day with your dad and getting a call, where your boss tells you that he can't afford to pay you anymore due to rising diesel costs and that there was no need for you to report to work anymore. Sucks huh? My reaction? Like, why couldn't he have called earlier so we could have just opted out of spending any money to eat out! We could have saved that. But that is the past, it is over and done with, and we can't change it now. And to top it all off, he called my husband several times after he finally found a job, and begged him to come back. My husband told him no, that we couldn't stand another sudden layoff like that again. Thank goodness, Kevin now has a good paying (sometimes) job. But right now most of that is going towards Christmas and still trying to catch back up fully on bills. Amen for the new year and tax season!! We will most definitely catch up in January/February.Of course, Kevin's mom didn't and still doesn't (far as I know) support my idea to go to college. The last time we ever went to her house (which has been a while since her and my hubby had a heated argument, which is the reason we hadn't been over there in a while before then) she never even asked me about it. Everyone I have talked to says that she is always bad-mouthing me, saying I am lazy and that this was an excuse not to go to work. Whatever! Get a life lady! This is an excuse to get a better job than the 'work for crap' cashier that I used to be. You cannot be paid enough to deal with public. Some people out there are just so rude, especially the ones that think if they touch your hand to put their money in it, then they will catch some awful disease and their hands or fingers are going to rot off. Lord have mercy. Oh and get this....she isn't very supportive of me going to school but her other son, my half BIL, now that is a different story. He has been in school for a while now and she is very supportive of him going and getting a free ride from his daddy all the while. Yep, every ounce of cash he spends comes from daddy dearest. Must be nice!Well, it is after 3 now and neither Chris nor I have our shoes on. I guess I am gonna get mine and help him with his. It won't be long til the bus runs and I have to pick Megan up. Until next time, America!!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Yesterday was the last day of class for me this semester....actually this year! My spring classes won't start til January 5th, 2009. I managed a total of 18 hours for the fall semester. I tell you, I do not like online classes. I took 3 online and 2 on-campus as to narrow down the days I would have to drive 30-something miles one way to school. Kevin was not in the right job to afford the pricey gas and daycare for an everyday schedule. The work for the online classes was very excessive due to the fact that you don't turn in work to a person daily/weekly so they have to be sure you are doing the work they assign you. One instructor had a tendency of taking their time when corresponding through email. That didn't set well with me, especially if the topic on hand was extremely important. All in all, I dealt with it and successfully accomplished my goals: to finish accordingly.

Monday marked a return to school from the week holiday for my third grader, Megan. Today they took a trip to the local high school to watch a theatrical performance of "The Nutcracker". I think this play is about worn out. Can't they find something else to do.....Christmas Carol, maybe?? Anywho, they are also doing Christmas projects for the next two and a half weeks. We got a list on Monday of items that are needed. I guess I will try to send a thing or two on Monday, the 8th. I know I will be glad when December 19th gets here. She will be out 2 weeks for Christmas holidays and I can sleep in some LOL!

On the other hand, since I am finished with my classes for now, Chris is happy that he doesn't have to go to Ms. Dana's for a while. For the first few months, he would cry everytime I dropped him off. The expressions on his poor face along with the question, "Mommy, you gonna pick me up in a little while?", would always melt my heart. I was later told that 5 minutes after I was gone, he was totally fine. I understand his strain. With me being a stay at home mom ever since he was born, I can relate to him not wanting to stay anywhere without me. This semester, he only had to stay with her 2 or 3 days a week. When my classes start back, he will be there every day, with the exception of Saturday and Sunday. I hope this serves as a learning experience for him since, hopefully, he will be starting preschool next fall. I really look forward to that! :)